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Thought Technology has bright biofeedback ideas
Started in '74 by partners who met as teens. Company writes software and
assembles its own hardware at two different sites
FRANCOIS SHALOM
The Gazette
September 21, 2004
CREDIT: MARIE-FRANCE COALLIER, THE GAZETTE
Lawrence Klein (left) and Hal Myers examine one of the devices used in
the field of biofeedback.
With Canada being one of the least advanced countries in the field of
biofeedback, it's peculiar that the biggest firm doing research and
selling products for the discipline should be in Montreal.
But it is.
Thought Technology Ltd., occupying a warren of offices in an aging Notre
Dame de Grace walk-up, was started in 1974 by Lawrence Klein and Hal
Myers, who met as teenagers.
Now pushing 60, the two equal partners - Myers, 58, is president and
Klein, 59, vice-president - have proven the adage that a prophet is
without honour in his own country.
In essence, biofeedback rests on the now widely accepted notion that
people can change some of their own physiological characteristics, which
have long been treated by the medical establishment as unalterable
traits.
Thought Technology has developed an Infinity line of instrumentation -
the company writes the software and assembles its own hardware at two
different sites - that's now used in such areas as stroke
rehabilitation, muscle strengthening to combat incontinence, or to track
the progress of people afflicted with ADD or ADHD (attention deficit
disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder).
It also produces ergonomics gauges, like its FlexComp monitor, and
stress-management and re-education tools like the MyoTrac, ProComp and
ProComp2.
Another product, the U-Control trainer, lets incontinence patients do
pelvic muscle-strengthening exercises, or reminds others to relax
muscles completely every so often in the course of a normal day, a
deceptively simple yet vital muscle-education technique.
The MyoTrac, for example, hooks up electrodes to a stroke victim or
incontinence patient to record his or her muscle movements over a day.
For home patients, the box is equipped with wireless-telemetry
electrodes and a memory card. A physician or technician simply has to
plug in the card to a computer for a readout of that day's activity.
Not to be confused with the 1970s biorhythm fad, an early New-Age
flameout, biofeedback is now a mainstream part of the medical trade -
against the best efforts of the drug firms - and is growing fast.
The pharmaceutical companies view them as a threat, since biofeedback
treatment often cuts medication intake by 50 per cent, Myers said.
Despite having taken its place at the medical table, biofeedback is
still slow going in Canada, though, which explains why Thought
Technology, with a worldwide reputation, is relatively unknown and
unheralded here.
AC Milan, a premier European soccer club, is one instance of the
company's global reach.
The Italian team has been working with Thought Technology for years to
keep track of each player's physical and psychological profile using
Thought's Flexcomp, and the firm's name and logo appear - unpaid - on
the team's official Web site with a testimonial from AC Milan lab
medical officer Bruno De Michelis.
"Every two weeks, all players are examined thoroughly," Klein said.
"They look at muscle tension, brain wave frequency, the social part of
their lives, a whole psychological profile."
The result, he said, is that AC Milan has 24 players on its roster
instead of the usual 31, because of fewer injuries, greatly helped by
the players' commitment to the program.
More importantly, Thought has developed psycho-physiological programs to
replace - at least in part - drug treatments for ADD. Many children who
have been given Ritalin, for example, may have to pay all their lives
for being on that powerful cocaine-like stimulant, about which there are
growing doubts.
The worst part, said Myers, is that many of them didn't have to take the
drug. The ProComp, he said, provides "a good alternative to Ritalin."
Thousands of psychologists have bought the $5,000 ProComp, which
monitors between eight and 40 channels of physiological activity,
including brain waves, blood pressure, heart rate and muscle tension.
Michael Thompson, founder and co-administrator with his wife Lynda of
Toronto's ADD Centre and the Biofeedback Institute, is one of the
thousands and heartily endorsed Myers's statement.
He called the two Montrealers "the top professionals in the world in the
field."
When you have a question, they immediately respond, said Thompson in an
interview. "And the instruments themselves are at the very top of the
line."
"They are the best, which is absurd. I mean, it's fascinating, because
we have absolutely no following in Canada, (unlike) Australia or
Europe."
"The company is sitting there in Montreal, an unknown, while all over
the world, people are looking at what they're doing. We chuckle about it
all the time."
With 48 employees at the two locations, Thought tallies up "between $5
million and $10 million" in annual revenue, said Klein, who handles
sales.
Myers, the technology buff who launched the company in 1973 with his own
invention, the first-generation GSR (galvanic skin response) monitor to
gauge a patient's stress and emotional level, said the company's "making
good money."
Myers, who helped monitor stunt artist David Blaine during his
62-hours-entombed-in-a-block-of-ice caper in Manhattan's Times Square in
2000, said that "we've never had a loan. We had a line of credit once,
but we never used it."
In the last three years, Thought has plowed back $1 million annually
into R&D to stay on top, up from $700,000 before.
"A good percentage of that could have gone into our pockets, I suppose,"
Myers said.
"But we intend to keep doing what we've done for the last 30 years; keep
innovating."
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